http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/milton_friedman.html

 

See some of his quotes.  He was against a social role for business.  Why
should business direct some of its profits to this or that social role?
They weren’t elected to this.  They are in business to make profits.  Full
stop.

 

arthur

 

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Gurstein
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 4:49 PM
To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'
Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: [Ottawadissenters] Academic Economists
toConsider Ethics Code

 

But wasn't it he who said (in paraphrase) the business of business is
business... (The business of economists is economics) ... Leave ethics to
the little people (or some such...

 

M

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Cordell
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 1:36 PM
To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION'
Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: [Ottawadissenters] Academic Economists
toConsider Ethics Code

I think Friedman would agree.  He was against monopoly power and use of
established positions to promote one thing or the other.

 

His book Capitalism and Freedom which I read a long time ago I recall was
against licensing of all kinds including medical doctors!!

 

Arthur

 

 

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Gurstein
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 4:13 PM
To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'
Subject: [Futurework] FW: [Ottawadissenters] Academic Economists to Consider
Ethics Code

 

Hmmm... What would Milton Friedman say to this?

 

M

 

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Cordell
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2011 5:45 PM
To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: [Ottawadissenters] Academic Economists to Consider Ethics Code

  

December 30, 2010  NY Times   (from Karen Cole’s Casey Report)


Academic Economists to Consider Ethics Code


By SEWELL CHAN
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/sewell_chan/in
dex.html?inline=nyt-per> 


WASHINGTON — When the Stanford business professor Darrell Duffie co-wrote a
book on how to overhaul Wall Street regulations, he did not mention that he
sits on the board of Moody
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/moodys_corporation/in
dex.html?inline=nyt-org> ’s, the credit rating agency
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/credit_ratin
g_agencies/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> . 

As a commentator on the economy, Laura D
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/laura_dandrea_
tyson/index.html?inline=nyt-per> ’Andrea Tyson, a former adviser to
President Bill Clinton
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/bill_clinton/i
ndex.html?inline=nyt-per>  who teaches in the business school at the
University of California, Berkeley
<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/univ
ersity_of_california/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , does not usually say that
she is a director of Morgan Stanley
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/morgan_stanley/index.
html?inline=nyt-org> . 

And the faculty Web page of Richard H. Clarida, a Columbia professor who was
a Treasury
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/treasur
y_department/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  official under President George W.
Bush
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/george_w_bush/
index.html?inline=nyt-per> , omits that he is an executive vice president at
Pimco, the giant bond fund manager. 

Academic economists, particularly those active in policy debates in
Washington and Wall Street, are facing greater scrutiny of their outside
activities these days. Faced with a run of criticism, including a popular
movie, leaders of the American Economic Association, the world’s largest
professional society for economists, founded in 1885, are considering a step
that most other professions took a long time ago — adopting a code of
ethical standards. 

The proposal, which has not been announced to the public or to the
association’s 17,000 members, is partly a response to “Inside Job,” a
documentary film released in October that excoriates leading academic
economists for their ties to Wall Street as consultants, advisers or
corporate directors. 

Universities and medical schools have tightened disclosure requirements and
conflicts of interest policies for scientists, engineers and doctors in
recent years, and the main professional associations for political
scientists, sociologists and psychologists have all adopted ethical codes. 

During the American Economic Association’s annual meeting, in Denver next
week, its executive committee will take up a proposal to “consider the
association’s role regarding ethical standards for economists,” according to
an internal committee agenda obtained by The New York Times. 

The association’s president, Robert E. Hall of Stanford, would not elaborate
on the proposal or say where he stood on it. 

“Like my predecessors, I’m skeptical that the A.E.A. is well-positioned to
cure any ethical lapses that economists may be committing outside the A.E.A.
itself,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Still, the topic might benefit from further
discussion within the organization.” 

The proposal is likely to raise a host of questions: Should economists be
required merely to disclose who finances their research, as many academic
journals already require? Should they have to reveal which corporate clients
they advise, consult for or give speeches to? Should they even be allowed to
serve as corporate directors and officers, as many business and finance
professors do? 

Some scholars say the discussion is long overdue. 

“I’m glad the A.E.A. is taking it up,” said Dale W. Jorgenson, a former
president of the association and a longtime Harvard
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/harvard
_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  professor (he advised the
undergraduate thesis of Ben S. Bernanke
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/ben_s_bernanke
/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , now the Federal Reserve
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal
_reserve_system/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  chairman). “I’m hoping they take
an activist position.” 

Professor Jorgenson said that academic economists had fallen behind scholars
in other fields in their attentiveness to transparency, and should follow
the example of the biomedical sciences, where money from the private sector
is subject to rigorous disclosure rules. But another former president of the
association, Robert E. Lucas Jr., said universities were better suited to
handle the matter. 

“It’s good to get this stuff out in the open, but I don’t like the idea of
the A.E.A. watching over this,” said Mr. Lucas, a Nobel laureate at the
University of Chicago
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/univers
ity_of_chicago/index.html?inline=nyt-org> . 

Mr. Lucas added: “What disciplines economics, like any science, is whether
your work can be replicated. It either stands up or it doesn’t. Your
motivations and whatnot are secondary.” 

Since economics emerged as a modern discipline in the late 19th century, its
practitioners have resisted formal ethical codes, said George F. DeMartino,
an economist at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the
University of Denver. 

In “The Economist’s Oath: On the Need for and Content of Professional
Economic Ethics,” to be published in January, Mr. DeMartino describes
concerns dating to the 1920s about the influence of business on economic
research, and cites multiple calls within the association for a code of
conduct — all of which have been rebuffed. 

After one such debate in 1994, the committee concluded that it might not
have the relevant expertise to fairly judge ethical disputes; that a fair
mechanism to resolve complaints would be hard to establish; and that any
such effort could result in lawsuits and prove toothless because of a lack
of sanctions for violators. 

“I can see the case for specific rules on conflicts of interest, but that
doesn’t begin to exhaust the ethical challenges that confront economists,”
Mr. DeMartino said. 

What is clear is that the film has rattled the profession. 

“You could call this the ‘Inside Job’ effect,” said David H. Autor, an
M.I.T.
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/massach
usetts_institute_of_technology/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  professor who is
a nonvoting member of the committee but had not heard of the proposal.
“Certainly the implication of the movie was that people were selling their
academic reputations to further the interests of moneyed individuals and
institutions.” 

The film is particularly critical of R. Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia
Business School and a director of MetLife
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/metlife_inc/index.htm
l?inline=nyt-org> ; Frederic S. Mishkin, a professor at the same school who
advises investment firms; and Martin S. Feldstein, a Harvard professor who
resigned from the board of the American International Group
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/american_internationa
l_group/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , the insurance giant, after it was
bailed out by the Fed and the Treasury. 

All have held top posts. Professor Feldstein was chairman of the Council of
Economic Advisers
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/w/white_h
ouse_council_of_economic_advisers/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  under
President Ronald Reagan
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/ronald_wilson_
reagan/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , a job Mr. Hubbard later held under Mr.
Bush. Professor Mishkin was a Fed governor. 

Mr. Hubbard said the association proposal “sounds like a very good idea,”
and Professor Mishkin said: “I strongly support having the A.E.A. clarify
standards for disclosure, because increased transparency would benefit the
public and the economics profession.” (Professor Feldstein said he could not
discuss his work for A.I.G. on the advice of lawyers.) 

A recent paper
<http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/working_papers/working_papers_201-2
50/WP239.pdf>  by Gerald Epstein and Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth of the
University of Massachusetts
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/univers
ity_of_massachusetts/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , Amherst, found that many
financial economists who weighed in on the Wall Street overhaul signed into
law in July did not prominently disclose potential conflicts of interest. 

As an example they cited Mr. Duffie, who like Mr. Mishkin was an author of
“The Squam Lake Report,” a volume of recommendations on financial reform
that was published in June. 

“Looking back on it, it was probably an oversight not to say that we not
only talk to regulators but have affiliations with players in the financial
services industry,” Mr. Duffie said. 

Others said they saw no problem with their multiple roles. Professor
Clarida, of Columbia, said his experiences at Treasury and Pimco “enhance my
academic work and my effectiveness in the classroom.” 

Ms. Tyson, who is an unpaid adviser to the Obama administration, said,
“Provided everything is disclosed, there is no reason why an economist who
happens to have associations in the private sector should be precluded from
speaking out on policy issues.” 

But while many economists disclose corporate work on their Web sites, others
do not. Professor Clarida provided a copy of his résumé that lists his work
for Pimco, but his Web page has an older version that does not. 

__._,_.___

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